West Brookfield panel wonders: Must accused officer be paid?

Wednesday

Jan 23, 2013 at 6:00 AMJan 23, 2013 at 4:23 PM

Selectmen went behind closed doors Tuesday night to discuss questions about the continuing paid administrative leave granted late last year to veteran Police Officer Harold A. Parker, who is accused of assaulting a Warren woman.

The town Advisory Committee on finances recently sent a letter to selectmen about Officer Parker’s status, but when a reporter asked Tuesday night for a copy of it, selectmen declined the request because they had not read the letter in public.

Thomas H. Long of the Advisory Committee was contacted after the meeting and he confirmed that the committee expressed in the letter its unanimous concern that Officer Parker has remained on paid administrative leave since September or October.

The committee asked selectmen to contact town counsel to make certain the payments to Officer Parker were appropriate and required.

Officer Parker, 50, who was listed in the town’s annual town report as having an annual salary higher than $68,000, was accused in Central District Court in Worcester late last year of domestic assault and battery. At last report the case was pending.

A woman in Warren, with whom he reportedly was living, accused him of “slamming her against a wall” on Sept. 3.

Officer Parker is said to be living in Hoosick Falls, N.Y., and according to West Brookfield town records has a “lifetime” appointment to the local police department, meaning he can be dismissed only for “just cause,” according to West Brookfield Police Chief C. Thomas O’Donnell Jr.